Review: The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win

The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Gene Kim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“The Phoenix Project” gave me what I was expecting – a story of a couple of months in the life of an earnest low-level IT manager thrust into an IT disaster-in-the-making and solving his companies issues through low-emotion thinking, planning, and negotiating while learning at the feet of an optimization guru. Through the hero’s actions, no one is laid off or outsourced, and his boss looks like a hero to his board and investors. And the hero is rewarded by being promoted out of IT. An IT success story. I enjoyed the way the author wove into the story issues that illustrated the learning path of the hero. The story didn’t suffer too much with the extended descriptions of what the guru was teaching. This is one of those books that would be good to take a few notes on in order to remember the concepts, but there aren’t a lot, and the afterward to the book included many helpful sections for further information. This felt a lot like “The Goal”, but with an IT workflow perspective. Entertaining way to learn, or relearn, some workflow optimization.

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Review: I'll Be There for You: The One about Friends

I'll Be There for You: The One about Friends by Kelsey Miller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve not been a fan of Friends, but my wife is, and I’ve grown accustomed to hearing episodes drone by at night like an audio nightlight. Friends tends to get turned to after the local news, and it’s often on until we go to sleep, sometimes for minutes and sometimes for hours. I was a half generation past the Friends cadre (I was more of the Thirtysomething aspirational set), and wasn’t a city dweller, so it didn’t pique the interest. But in the years of living with Friends on in the background, I’ve become accustomed to the characters. I find the characters well written, at times, and well acted, at times. And I appreciated how the show was put together. This book tells of Friends in all aspects, including the genesis of the show, the building of the cast, the highlights over the years, and the negotiations that made entertainment news. I suspect this book contains more detail than a fan would have picked up reading People or entertainment news while the show was running, but not a lot more detail. There is some of what I would consider analysis of the characters, and I found that part quite interesting. For instance, I learned more about the Rachel character than I expected, and since reading this I’ve watched the reruns with a more observant eye for her spoiled rich kid personality. I really hadn’t noticed it before (it didn’t stand out in comparison to many local characters). Also interesting was the analysis of “fat” Monica. I was also surprised that the authors didn’t drill down into every episode for some content, but I’m glad they didn’t. Just the highlights are here. For those looking for a trip down memory lane, or looking to what went into a successful comedy, this is a nice telling.

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Review: I, The Jury

I, The Jury by Mickey Spillane
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I remember watching Stacy Keach’s Mike Hammer on television when it was first run, back in the 80s. At the time, I was a fan of what seemed to be the more cerebral tough guy detectives, like Lew Archer, the Continental Op, Philip Marlowe, and the like. I got the impression, from the tv show or from the reviews I had read, that Spillane was “working class” in terms of writing and in terms of his detective. I found in reading “I, the Jury” that that is true, but like many writers that found popularity, the tone has a way of growing on you. This certainly had more violence than the others, and more deeply described to almost a comic-book level. It also had more sex than I recall compared to the others mentioned, but Hammer is still kind of a one girl guy here. He’s got sex on his mind, enough to think about it a lot but not enough to do anything about it beside propose. I’m sure this was racy for the 40s, when written, but seems very tame compared to stuff, say, from the 60s. Nowadays, this book as written would be too tame for an HBO series, though it certainly isn’t Disney material either. I will read more in this series, at least to see how the writing grows as the author ages and how the characters reflect the times.

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Review: How Not to Run a B&b

How Not to Run a B&b by Bobby Hutchinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For those interested in the financial aspects of how to run a B&B, this is not the book you are looking for. There is little here on finances, beyond noticing how expensive things are. There’s actually more financial info here on income of romance authors. And this doesn’t contain how-to’s on running a B&B. It’s not that kind of book. Oddly, it is more like “A Year in Provence”, albeit on a different scale and a tight budget. Instead of swimming pools and vineyards, this is more about electric toilets, stained sheets, and vermin infestations. The author describes many of her guests and renters, as well as the local folks that help her maintain her home and that provide the flavor of a neighborhood. She comes at innkeeping without having actually stayed at a B&B, and without apparently having lived in a large older house that required plentiful maintenance. She shares many mistakes and learnings, as many make for good anecdotes. I found this a quite interesting slice-of-life story, and I’m not surprised at where the story, and the author, goes in the end. The author includes some of her recipes, including some “tricks” she’s learned along the way. Most surprising to me were the number of foreign guests she attracts, many who stay for extended periods. If you have thought about opening a B&B, this will give you enough stories to either give pause or light your fuse. Entertaining.

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Review: Superhubs: How the Financial Elite and their Networks Rule Our World

Superhubs: How the Financial Elite and their Networks Rule Our World by Sandra Navidi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lifestyles of the financial rich and famous. Eye opening, but in that kind of way. You get behind the scenes descriptions of top financial meetings like Davos and Bilderberg. Item that stuck in my head (since I was listening to this audiobook while on a treadmill): top financiers must be very fit to attract others into their “super-hub” of relationships. I found more of the writing focused on the celebrity, and much less on the academics of networks than I would have expected. This is much more readable because of this. I’d consider it an example of “pop international finance” in that you learn a bit about how top financial executives work while also learning about how their social lives work. In that Robin Leach kind of way, this has some fascinating content.

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Review: Magic Words: The Science and Secrets Behind Seven Words That Motivate, Engage, and Influence

Magic Words: The Science and Secrets Behind Seven Words That Motivate, Engage, and Influence by Tim David
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I first saw this book, I thought it would be a good place to learn when to use “Shazam” and when to use “Presto”, and if it was polite to use “Abracadabra” in all circumstances. After all, the book is called “Magic Words” and it is written by a magician. But no, this ended up being about my second favorite subject, the impact of the words you use on influencing the way people think. I’ve read quite a few books that cover this topic as part of a larger review of influence, but this book focuses on 7 “words”. There’s actually 6 words and one special “word”, the listener’s name, that is analyzed. The words are all simple, short common words, the longest being “because”, but also including “yes” and “but”. Given just this description, this could have been written as a Hallmark Cards book, with just some advice in adages. But again, no, this book includes research descriptions and describes how the simple word can be used in a powerful way, with examples and anecdotes to illustrate. For example, the author describes the use of the word “but” to, in effect, bury the lead phrase. If you hear “I enjoyed the book but it was too short” you would focus on “it was too short” and may not even register the speaker enjoyed the book. The author suggests a tactic to counter this is to repeat the phrase but rearrange the parts, or in this case “The book was too short but you enjoyed it?” An interesting tactic. I've found myself unintentionally using "but" this way, and I know now why I get a different reaction than I expect. The book has a few other suggestions in a similar vein. I found this very readable and actionable.

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Review: The Compassionate Achiever: How Helping Others Fuels Success

The Compassionate Achiever: How Helping Others Fuels Success by Christopher L. Kukk
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Given the title of this book, the “Compassionate Achiever”, it could have gone about anywhere. Much of the book ended up being about decision making and looking for mutual benefit, listening skills, as well as thinking outside the box or perspective shifting. If those topics sound familiar, you’ve probably been reading self help books written in the past decade or so. These are common topics. The author comes at this from a different angle – using these tactics to do compassionate things for others. I didn’t find that angle to be that different from how I normally approach my life, so this didn’t cause any life changes here. At least at times, the author was writing for an audience of leaders, which also limited my appreciation. But I did enjoy the voice of the author and the anecdotes he used to illustrate various concepts, and I would consider reading more by this author.

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